Lack of collaboration and union oppo-sition. IMPACT is run unilaterally bythe school district administration. Afterpolling more than 500 of its membersat a meeting in 2011, the WashingtonTeachers Union issued a scathing voteof no confidence in IMPACT. The unioncontinues to file numerous grievanceson behalf of teachers about IMPACT’simplementation and results. Last year,Jason Kamras started to meet with theunion president in problem-solving ses-190190355

system by the time IMPACT had been in
place for two years. Half of newly hired
teachers left within their first two years,
and 80 percent were gone by the end of
their fifth year—far above the national
average (Ingersoll, 2003).

Put bluntly, teachers are fleeing the
D.C. Public Schools. Good teachers
are leaving voluntarily at all-time high
rates, citing the lack of a professional
culture, collegial trust, and respect.

evaluation score. (This percentage was
originally 55 percent, but it was reduced

are fleeing the D.C.

Michelle Rhee brought in 90 principals,
a majority of whom are now gone.

in 2012–13 as part of the first significant changes to IMPACT.) Teachers
and principals may get bonuses or summarily lose their jobs on the basis of test

Public Schools. Goodteachers are leaving

Montgomery County, on the other
hand, has a new teacher turnover
rate well below the national average.

According to the most recent Mont-performance. Examples have started toaccumulate of teachers being fired eventhough students and colleagues con-sidered them excellent teachers.

The school district seems to lowball

voluntarily at all-time high rates.

gomery County data (2012), 6. 1 percent
of new teachers leave after one year,

12. 6 percent leave within their first two
years, and just 29. 9 percent leave within
their first five years.

enrollment projections and increaseIt is unclear what the constant churn,class size when budgeting, so schoolsoften have to let “excess” teachers go inthe spring and then hire other teachers

Different Approaches,Different Results

the ranking and rating, has accomplished in the D.C. Public Schools.

Student achievement gains, as measuredback in the fall. According to Mary Levy On the surface, the Montgomeryby standardized test scores, have been(2012), an education finance expertCounty and District of Columbiaunimpressive. There was a slight bumpwho has studied D.C. Public Schoolsteacher evaluation systems seem to have up in 2009, tainted now by allegeddata for more than 30 years, in thesimilar components, including a similar- widespread cheating in 103 schoolslow-income schools that constitute thelooking rubric to describe, in shorthand, that year (Strauss, 2012). In 2010 andsystem’s great majority, it’s not unusual what good teaching looks like. Both

2011, scores dropped overall. Scoresfor 40 percent of an individual school’shave expert teachers doing observations in 2012 were flat in reading; they werestaff to turn over in a single year and for and rendering judgments. The Districtslightly up overall in math, but with nomore than 60 percent to turn over inof Columbia’s “Framework for Teaching big gains. National Assessment of Edu-two years. Staff churn has become theand Learning” and its “Nine Command- cational Progress (NAEP) scores havecultural norm, by design.

ments of Good Teaching” resembleimproved from their previous abysmalNew research has documented theMontgomery County’s “Studying Skillful levels, but the rate of improvement hasnegative effect of teacher turnover andthe importance of a collegial profes-Teaching.”But in the D.C. Public Schools,actually slowed compared with gainsthat the district was making under pre-sional learning culture. High rates ofIMPACT has suffered resistance andvious superintendents Clifford Janeyturnover are bad for the professionalpushback. It has contributed to firingand Paul Vance, before Michelle Rheeculture in schools, and they particularly many teachers, but it seems to havecame to town.

harm high-poverty students (Johnson,done little to win over the workforceAs Mary Levy and others have docu-Kraft, & Papay, 2012; Ronfeldt, Loeb,or to create a culture focused on a deep mented, the achievement gap by income

& Wyckoff, 2011).

understanding of good teaching andand race has widened in the last five